Blue Moon – Dawn Over Early Winter Spires
Moon at dawn over the Early Winters Spires in Washington State’s North Cascades mountains.
One of my favorite places to photograph is in Washington State’s North Cascades mountain range. Just off of Highway 20 is a great viewpoint of the Early Winter Spires. Since this area is just on the east side of the Cascade Mountain Range, you’re often greeted with beautiful blue skies and great weather. This specific morning, we got up well before the crack of dawn and made a short hike up to the viewpoint. We knew that the moon would be out and would provide a great compositional element for our photographs. The stars were shining bright in the morning twilight and in this photo you can see the Orion constellation directly over the Early Winter Spires. The previous day’s snowfall provided a light dusting of white over the peaks, providing beautiful contrast for this pre-dawn photograph.
As with most photographs, the image isn’t finished until you work with it in post-processing. In this case, I used Adobe Lightroom 5 to increase the contrast and tone down the left side of the image where the sky had become a bit too bright. I took this shot in 2011 using a Nikon D700 and exposed for 8 seconds at f/11 at ISO 1000.
Nikon Firmware Updates D300, D300s, D700, P7700
Nikon D300s. Photo courtesy Nikon, Inc.
Good news for owners of the Nikon D300, D300s and D700 cameras. If you are considering buying the Nikon 800mm f/5.6, then Nikon has just updated these older camera bodies with new firmware to support this lens.
Here are the direct links:
Nikon D700 Firmware A 1.04 B 1.03
Also, Nikon just announced new firmware for their top-of-the-line point and shoot, the P7700. This firmware update fixes an ISO bug in the camera’s software. Here’s the link:
Nikon Rebates
Great news for you Nikon shooters out there as Nikon has a group of discounts for lens and camera bundles. Here’s the link for the Nikon rebate page at B&H Photo Video.
Don’t wait too long, the rebates end 9/29/2012.
Nikon Fall 2012 Rebates at B&H Photo Video.
Virginia City, NV
I went down to Virginia City, Nevada a couple days ago to take care of some business with a colleague. After we had lunch, we walked through the old mining town to take some quick snaps of the area. Thought it would be fun to convert a few to black and white. I took my Nikon D700 and a tiny little Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 travel lens.
Harleys in Virginia City. Nikon D700, 28-70mm. Converted to black and white using Nik Silver Efex for Photoshop CS5.
Wagon Wheel. Nikon D700, 28-75mm f2.8. Converted to black and white using Nik Color Efex Pro for Capture NX2.
Cattle brand. Nikon D700, 28-75mm f2.8. Converted to black and white using Nik Color Efex Pro in Capture NX2.
Horse drawn carriage. Painted with water color filter and converted to B&W using Nik Color Efex Pro for Capture NX2. Jury is still out on whether or not I like the photo, but you gotta keep experimenting. Nikon D700, 28-75mm f2.8.
Coca Cola collectables. Nikon D700, 28-75mm f2.8. Converted to black and white in Nikon Capture NX2, then color added back in with a Selection Control Point.
New Firmware for Nikon D300s, D3, D3x, D700
Nikon just posted new firmware for the D300s, D3, D3x, D700 cameras. The fixes include support for 64GB cards, improved white balance, changes to auto focus tracking lock on (menu a4), some GPS improvements, and some other bug fixes.
Here are the links:
D300s A/B 1.0.1
D3 A/B 2.02
D3X B 1.0.1
D700 A/B 1.0.2
Old Buildings in Port Townsend
A few weeks ago I took my family out for a day-trip to Port Townsend, WA. It is a pretty little town with beautiful buildings and great people. We had some lunch, had a wonderful milkshake and took some photographs (of course!).
I shot with the Nikon D700 and really enjoyed its capabilities. It is a very nice camera with excellent ergonomics and responds quickly to just about any situation.
The shots below are all taken with the Nikon 70-200 f2.8.
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